Mistake or Miracle?
“Oh you know those doctors, they don’t know what they’re talking about, they are always making mistakes.” “Seems like these days doctors just like to make things up to scare you.” These are just a few of the many statements that were made after my miracle happened.
So many caring people have come to me asking “So what was wrong with Elliott? He looks like he was born perfectly healthy!”. Yes, he certainly was, Elliott is my miracle baby. Here is his story.
I was 20 weeks pregnant going in for a routine anatomical ultrasound- you know, the one where they count to make sure they have two hands, two feet, eyes, nose etc? I had been through this all once before so I pretty much knew what to expect, or so I thought. They measured my sweet boys’ body and he was measuring three weeks behind, putting him at under the tenth percentile for growth at his gestational age. They told me the nurse practitioner would be in to explain what that meant. You could imagine the thoughts that were swirling non-stop through my head while we waited for what seemed like forever for the nurse practitioner to come in. The nurse told me that he was growing quite a bit behind schedule which was concerning to them mostly because my firstborn was ten pounds, and generally “history repeats itself”. She told me we would have to wait until I was 24 weeks to re-measure him to see if the growth changed much. They told me my pregnancy wasn’t “viable” until 24 weeks anyways and there was nothing they could do until that point.
Those few weeks were some of the hardest weeks I have ever gone through. During that time I learned how to be patient and just “Let God”. One of the things that really helped me not worry as much were the sweet little kicks I would feel from my boy. Those were like little reminders from God saying, “Hannah, I’m in control, be patient”.
I went back to my appointment at 24 weeks and he hadn’t grown enough for their concern to go away, in fact he actually went down in percentile. His little tummy was measuring under 1% and the rest of his body was 5%.
I was sent to a High Risk OB two hours away to see what was going on. Their they did an extensive ultrasound and found his growth to be the same as my Doctor's office. My little boy was diagnosed with Intrauterine Growth Restriction.
Commonly known as IUGR, basically, failure to thrive in utero. Almost all cases end in delivering very early, because the baby just stops growing inside. I was sent the next day to the hospital to get a round of steroid shots, in case of early delivery, and I was to return to the high risk doctor weekly for the rest of my pregnancy... 4 hours of driving, every. single. week. The panic that struck my momma heart was awful! My mind would race all day with thoughts of “What if he doesn’t make it until next week?” “ How will I know if he is ok?” Those weeks were the longest weeks of my life. We continued to go to appointments, and by the time I was 26 weeks he had grown to the 18th percentile in overall growth, but was still under 1% for his tummy. From 26 weeks to 34 weeks he stayed about the same with his weight still under 20% which is considered IUGR. So many, many people were praying for our tiny guy to grow during this time! My husband and I got to see with our own eyes his growth measurements as they slowly started to pick up.
When I was 34 weeks pregnant we went in and he grew from 18% to almost 40%. Talk about seeing a miracle before our very eyes. The doctor was quite confused, because he said there was nothing that I myself could do to help him grow any quicker. He told me, “Whatever you are doing, keep doing it!” However, I knew it was nothing I was doing but what many friends, family and church family were doing, and ultimately what God was doing. We rejoiced so much and when we told our friends and family they were ecstatic!
Elliott Shane Demastus was born in a successful VBAC just 6 weeks later, weighing 7lbs 2oz. He was absolutely perfect, you would have never known anything was “wrong” with him almost my whole pregnancy.
After he was born, I got many comments from fellow believers and good Christian friends about how “Doctors don’t know what they are talking about half of the time”. Here is where I believe they are the ones who are wrong. My God worked a miracle out in our lives, through the prayers of so many people.
We tend to try to find someone or something to place blame on when things go wrong or even right, Instead of trusting in the One who is greater then anything.
Just because Elliott’s diagnosis changed completely around does NOT mean the doctors made a mistake, it means that God is Omniscient and Omnipotent. I have learned through this whole experience not to place the “blame” on doctors but rather give the credit to God- The Greatest Physician.
Elliott’s name means “Jehovah is God” we picked his name before we even knew he was a boy. How awesome is that?
